It’s hardly surprising that Iraq’s Assyrian and Chaldean Christians would seek refuge from the chaos of post-Saddam Iraq in one of the most Christian countries in the Middle East — almost one third of Lebanon’s population is Christian, and the country’s presidency is reserved for them. "Iraqi Christians feel comfortable in a country where Christians have power," says Mark Samuel, the president of a Lebanese Assyrian political party. At the town’s Assyrian Church of St. George, Iraqi refugees now make up almost one-third of the congregation. "It was bad in Iraq under the old regime," says James Isho, whose family fled Baghdad two years ago after the church next door to their house in the Dora district was bombed. "Now it’s even worse."
Lebanon has a growing Iraqi refugee population, currently numbering between 20,000 and 40,000 Iraqi, according to the U.N. — a small fraction of the estimated 2 million Iraqis who have fled the spiraling violence in their country. But what makes Lebanon’s Iraqi refugee intake unusual is that about 30% of them are Christian, although Christians comprise just about 3% of Iraq’s population.
Many Christian refugees arrive from Syria on mountain paths used by smugglers, bringing with them little more than a suitcase or two and harrowing stories of rape, kidnapping and murder. Upon arriving, the first place many of them go is the Assyrian and Chaldean churches. "Every day five or six more families come here," says Bishop Michael Kisargi from the headquarters of the Chaldean Church in Lebanon. "Everyone can tell me a story about persecution by Muslims." One of the worst, he said, was from a family whose daughter had been raped 15 times by militia members.
As a small minority without a militia of their own, Iraqi Christians have been persecuted by both Shia and Sunni Muslim militias, and also by criminal gangs. "They think because we have liquor stores or live in nice neighborhoods we have more money," says Ghassan Mansou Chamoun, an Iraqi Christian from Mosul who arrived in Lebanon in December. The 36 year-old taxi driver left after receiving death threats from the Muslim family of one his passengers who died in an accident. "They wanted $50,000 or my head," he said.
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The community relies largely on support from NGOs such as the Catholic charity Caritas, that has helped refugees of all religious backgrounds. But the Churches say they are swamped. "I can’t go on like this," said Bishop Kisargi, whose congregation has been supplying refugees with food and medicine and help finding homes. "We are a poor church and the situation is getting worse."
Kisargi is dismayed by his failure, during a trip to the U.S. last summer, to win support for Christian refugees from politicians and business leaders. The country he had once thought of as the apex of the civilized world is now ignoring its responsibilities, he said. "If you want to make a war, you have to protect the people."
Ironically, though, while Christians from Iraq are seeking refuge in Lebanon, many native-Lebanese Christians are themselves trying to escape Lebanon’s political and economic crisis. A recent poll of Lebanese Maronites, members of the country’s largest Christian sect, found that half of them are considering leaving for a better life overseas. For Christians across the Middle East then, the onset of the Jewish Passover season is marked by a new exodus.
Caritas Lebanon’s website – they take donations online.
Moving south…more need in Zimbabwe, via Aid to the Church in Need:
The Archbishop of Bulawayo, Mgr Pius Ncube has given his strongest backing to Aid to the Church in Need’s (ACN) urgent work to help some of the country’s neediest children. ACN has just agreed an emergency package of 10,000 Euro to help 460 children threatened by massive shortages of food and medical supplies. Speaking to ACN in an interview Monday, 2. 4., the Archbishop praised the project based in Bulawayo city. He told ACN: “You are helping to keep hope alive.”
The Archbishop had endorsed an urgent plea to help children whose lives are threatened by a lack of basic nutrition and medical treatment – a result of Zimbabwe’s dire poverty and the lowest life expectancy in the world, about 36 years. The population of Bulawayo’s suburbs has soared as needy families, whose homes were destroyed in the government’s universally-condemned 2005 slum clearing programme, flock to the city.
“I have seen for myself the suffering of these children. The families live next to a rubbish dump and they have to scavenge for whatever they need. Many of the children are sick with HIV and AIDS, and it is a struggle to get food or medicine,” said Archbishop Ncube. The grant will provide urgent medication and food for the children, who are at grave risk from a very high mortality rate, pay school fees and help establish a support centre at the parish. The project will also provide pastoral care and catechesis for the children. Trained counsellors from the area will offer support to the children, many of whom are orphans who have lost their parents to poverty or to AIDS.
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